Sonic Chronicles 2: Heroes Rising
by Avatar Emerald
Summary: When one adventure ends, another begins. The Dark Brotherhood may have been defeated, but now Sonic and this friends face a new threat: the rise of the Eggman Empire! Can Sonic and his friends overthrow the Empire and save their world?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: The Aftermath**

**_When one adventure ends, another begins. The Dark Brotherhood may have been defeated, but now Sonic and this friends face a new threat: the rise of the Eggman Empire! Sonic must now band with 15 friends, both old and new, and together they must use teamwork and combat savvy to restore the world to normal._**

**_"While enjoying a world tour after his previous defeat on Dr. Eggman, Sonic the Hedgehog received a distress call from his good friend, Tails the Fox. Mysterious invaders known as the Marauders had stolen the Chaos Emeralds and their commander Shade, a mysterious woman with and skill in combat, had captured Knuckles the Echidna, the Guardian of the Master Emerald on Angel Island. _**

**_During his search for his friend, Sonic gained some more friends to aid him such as Tails the Fox, Amy Rose, Big the Cat, Cream the Rabbit, Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat, E-123 Omega, and eventually Knuckles himself._**

**_Soon, Sonic and company discovered that Dr. Eggman survived their last encounter. Eggman swore that he was not with the Marauders and offered his services to stop the invaders. Though tension and distrust was high, the team agreed to let Eggman join them, but only until the Marauders were stopped. _**

**_After a series of events, Sonic and his friends discovered the shocking that the Marauders were another race of echidnas: the Nocturnus Clan! Their leader, Ix, planned to steal the Chaos Emeralds as well as the Master Emerald to return from the Twilight Cage and conquer the world. _**

**_Shade, on the other hand, refused to go through with the plan, saying that she just wanted to return her clan to this world, not take it over. She was proclaimed a traitor of the Nocturnus Clan. To make amends to Sonic and his friends, Shade joined our heroes to aid them in their quest to stop Ix._**

**_While the team decided to go to the Twilight Cage, Eggman said he would stay behind. He convinced the team that they had nothing to worry about. Though hesitant and still wary, the team had no choice but to leave since time was racing against them. So they left for the Twilight Cage, leave the Doctor behind._**

**_The team made their way to the Twilight Cage where they met many other races that dwelled in that realm. Many were warring tribes and there was no peace among them._**

**_After proving themselves, Sonic and his friends managed to unite them all in an alliance to defeat Ix, an enemy that they all had a common grudge against._**

**_Sonic and his friends fought Ix in an epic battle and attained victory. However, Ix would not give up so easily. With the last of his power, he began to close the wormhole that would allow our heroes to return home. Luckily, our heroes beat the clock and made it through just in time._**

**_However, when they returned to their world, it had changed for the worst. Eggman took advantage of Sonic's absence and took over the world!_**

**_Our story begins now, where we join our heroes as they now struggle to avoid the bombardment of lasers."_**

The Cyclone shook violently as the nonstop assault of lasers hit it in every direction.

"Everyone, hang on to something!" Sonic shouted as he gripped a nearby chair anchored into the floor.

Tails checked the red alert on the screen and saw that main engines were severely damaged. If a laser hit the power generator, the whole ship would blow up! Even now, the damage was so severe that if they didn't evacuate in time, they would go down with the ship!

"Guys, we have bail out NOW!"

Rouge, being the closest to the emergency exit, reached to press the button open when another attack hit the wing of the Cyclone. Everyone on board fell to the floor as the ship rocked back and forth. Rouge managed to find her balance again and opened the exit door.

"C'mon!" She ordered.

From below, one lucky laser shot up and hit the Cyclone dead in the center. The airship exploded.

The next thing Sonic knew was that he was hurtling through the air with Metropolis rushing to meet him. The one time he wished he could fly would be when he is falling to his doom.

Then he felt something grab his hand and looked up to see Tails clutching him with both hands and straining to stay airborne.

"Thanks, Tails!" Sonic exhaled.

"Don't thank me yet," Tails cringed at the effort he was exerting, "first we have to find safe place to land."

With his twin-tails acting like a helicopter's propeller, the little fox quickly but carefully made his way down an alleyway of Metropolis. After a shaky landing, Sonic and Tails both leaned against the wall near a dumpster to catch their breath.

"You alright, Tails?" Sonic asked.

"I'm fine," Tails answered.

Sonic looked around the corner of the alleyway and saw and what he saw made him feel nauseous. Metropolis had been completely rebuilt and swatbots were patrolling everywhere. Laser guns that shot them down were posted on nearly every metal skyscraper as far as the eye could see. On the far side was a tower taller than the others with Eggman's ugly trademark style, his own face abstracted in a Picasso sort of way.

The very thing Sonic and his friends fought so hard to prevent had happened. Eggman had established his empire!

Sonic turned away and leaned against the wall again, still trying to process the situation. Tails saw Sonic's reaction and became worried. In all the time they had been together, Sonic never acted this way before. He looked…defeated. Defeated and angry.

"Sonic, are you okay?" He asked nervously.

"I'm fine," Sonic answered through his teeth, "It's just…how did this happen?"

"I don't know," Tails said, "I mean, we were only in the Twilight Cage for a few days at most, but everything here looks like years have gone by."

Sonic scowled harder and looked away.

"Well," Tails continued, "I'm actually not too surprised. Remember that Shade was banished with the Nocturnus Clan a long time ago, but she's still young. For her, only a few years went by while four thousand years passed for us in our world."

"Heh, four thousand years old and she's still going strong," Sonic miserably grinned, trying to cheer himself up.

Tails just shook his head at the bad joke.

"Speaking of Shade," the fox said, "we should look for the others. I hope they're okay."

"They can take care of themselves," Sonic responded gruffly, "Right now we need to focus on stopping Eggman."

"Sonic," Tails answered sternly, "We have to make sure they're okay. Besides, with Eggman at full power like this, we're going to need help."

Sonic looked at his friend and saw a face that he thought he would never see on Tails. He didn't look threatening, but rather firmly commanding.

"Okay fine, you win," Sonic said, giving into the idea.

With that the two immediately set out. As they cautiously sneaked from alley to alley, avoiding the radar of the swatbots, Sonic felt a burning rage rising inside of him. This feeling was so rare for him that when it did come, he didn't know how to handle it. All he could thing about was the fact he lost and Eggman won.

He should be more focused on stopping Eggman! This was the very thing he was preventing, and now it's happened. It angered him at the thought of Eggman triumphing and having the world under his thumb. The others can take care of themselves; he had to stop Eggman NOW!

"Tails," Sonic said when they stopped for a breather, "You go look for the others, I'm going to stop Eggman."

"Sonic," Tails protested, "You can't take him on now, and you don't even have the Chaos Emeralds."

"I don't care," Sonic rebuked, "It was my responsibility to stop Eggman and now this has gone to far. I'm going and you can't stop me!"

"Sonic, what is wrong with you?!" Tails shouted, rather hurt to see his friend like this.

"Nothing's wrong with me," Sonic shouted back, "I…"

Sonic never finished his sentence because at that moment, a battalion of swatbots appeared from the entrance of the alley and surrounded the two survivors.

"INTRUDERS! ORDERS ARE ATTACK ON SIGHT."

"On second thought, let's talk about this later!" Sonic said before spindashing into a nearby swatbot.

Tails flew toward another and kicked it in the face, knocking it into another set of robots. As Sonic landed on his feet, he was rather shocked to find that he barely made a dent in the robot he attacked. The robots Tails knocked over just fell, no scratches or dents whatsoever. And they didn't even stay down for long; they just got back up and responded by firing lasers at the fox. Sonic quickly responded by tackling Tails out of the way.

"Looks like these swatbots aren't going down easily," Sonic said warily. "Time to tag-team."

Sonic and Tails grabbed the other's hand and they did a chain-and-ball imitation maneuver. The blue and yellow blur plowed through the robots like two bowling balls knocking down a set of pins. When the two stopped, they were pleased to see they at least managed to do some damage to the robots, such as seeing some of them surge with electric energy and having noticeable dents in their armor. However their grins soon turned to frowns as the robots just got up.

"Eggman must've upgraded these swatbots!" Tails concluded.

Sonic's eyes flashed with anger and he spindashed forward again.

"Sonic, wait!"

But it was too late; Sonic was caught by one of the swatbots and was slammed into the wall. Two other swatbots got a hold of Tails. Both of them struggled to get free, but the robots' grips on them wouldn't let them go. The robot that was holding Sonic raised its other fist and it's hand morphed into a laser gun. While Tails looked away, not wanting to see his friend shot in front of him, Sonic glared at the gun as it began to charge. He would at least go down with some dignity.

But before the robot could fire, it was frozen in a cyan light. The next thing Sonic knew, the robot's gun was ripped off its arm. The thing then sizzled and lost its power, releasing Sonic in the process. Sonic fell to the ground and looked around to see that all the robots were caught in a glowing cyan light.

"Need some assistance?" a voice said.

At that moment, all the robots sizzled as the cyan energy disabled their circuits and they all collapsed on the ground. Sonic rushed over to Tails and helped his buddy to his feet.

"Tails, you okay?" He asked concerned.

"I-I'm fine," Tails stuttered, "but what was that?"

"I think HE can answer that question," Sonic pointed as a very familiar hedgehog landed right in front of them with his arms folded across his chest.

"Silver the Hedgehog!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: The Resistance**

"Silver, what are you doing here?" Tails asked.

"I was about to ask where you guys have been," Silver answered, sounding rather annoyed.

"Is that anyway to greet someone?" Sonic said as he folded his arms and gave a rather glazed over expression.

"Is that anyway to talk to someone who just saved your life?" Silver rebuked with a glare at Sonic. "Seriously, where have you guys been? Don't you realize that Eggman has nearly taken this world over?"

"It's kind of a long story," Tails replied modestly.

Sonic just glared back at Silver. He was already feeling bad about what has happened and he didn't need Silver of all people telling him off. Although he was grateful Silver showed up just in time, he was still irritated about the whole situation.

A humming sound drawing closer at the opposite end of the alley caught their attention. They looked and saw shadows beginning to stretch into view.

"CORE ENERGY SIGNALS DETECTED!" The sound of a swatbot came from, "PREPARING FOR ATTACK!"

"Argh, I thought I lost those rust buckets," Silver grumbled as he lifted a nearby sewer cover with his telekinesis, "I have to get you guys back to HQ. This way, quick!"

"HQ?" Tails questioned.

"No time to talk, move it!" Silver commanded.

Sonic and Tails jumped down into the sewer with Silver following. Silver covered the hole just before the swatbots came around the corner, nearly shutting out all the light. Silver used his powers just enough so they could see their way around the sewer. Mucky, unpleasant water flowed through the tunnel, giving off a horrible stench. Fortunately, the group was on small a pathway that was raised just above the level of the water.

"Ugh!" Sonic winced as he plugged his nose, "Leave it to Silver to pick out the worst smelling hiding place!"

"Trust me," Silver said as if he didn't notice the odor, "This is nothing compared with some of the other places I've had to retreat to in order to survive."

Sonic glanced over at Silver with a rather disturbed expression.

"Just where DID you have to hide?" He questioned.

"Again: trust me, you don't want to know HALF the place I've been," Silver frowned and rolled his eyes.

"That aside, why did you bring us down here?" Tails asked, covering his nose and mouth with both hands.

"Follow me," Silver ordered as he motioned to them. "Those swatbots will pick up the radar again if we don't keep moving."

With that, he set off down the tunnel with the other two following, still confused as to what was going on.

After they walked down the sewer for about half an hour, Silver suddenly halted and put his hand up, indicating the other two to stop as well. He then turned to the wall and knocked on it in a specific sequence. To Sonic and Tails's surprise, a small slit opened up in the wall and a pair of eyes peeked through.

"Password," it commanded in a deep voice.

"Sturgeon," Silver replied.

The slit closed, there was a sound of clanking metal, and the wall opened up. On the other side was another tunnel lit with red lamps and a guard standing by a chain pulley system.

"Welcome back, Silver," He said as Silver walked through, "I take it your mission was successful?"

"Hey, Josh," Silver replied, "And yes, it was. As an added bonus, I also found some…survivors."

The soldier looked and saw Sonic and Tails walking in behind Silver.

"Sonic! Wh..." he exclaimed.

"Don't ask me where I've been," Sonic clenched as they walked by.

Tails was taken aback by how Sonic responded just as much as Josh was. Sure, Sonic had been rather terse ever since they came back to their world and understandably, but why was he taking it way too seriously? In all the years Tails had known Sonic, he had never seen him act this way. It was rather unsettling.

The guard flipped the switch on the generator attached to the pulley and the door slammed shut, keeping the horrendous smell out as well.

"We were starting to worry about you, Silver," Josh said as he turned to the white hedgehog.

"Sorry I took so long," Silver replied, "Eggman's security has gotten a little tighter. How are things here?"

"Very well as far as I know," Josh answered.

"Good,"

"Oh, and you might want to inform Nathan about Eggman's security,"

Silver nodded and the trio then continued down the tunnel.

"Hey, Silver!" Josh called out from behind. "While you're at it, you think you could ask Nathan to send another agent down for sentry duty. I've done my two hour shift already and I'm bored."

"I'll be sure to do that!" Silver answered.

Silver continued to walk down tunnel with the other two following.

"Who's Nathan?" Sonic asked.

"Leader of this squad's security system," Silver replied. "He's in charge of making sure our operations in this base remain a secret as well as keeping track of Eggman's security. Very reliable; he was one of the G.U.N.'s top agents."

"What do you mean, "was"?" Tails asked nervously.

"I'll explain later," Silver answered grimly.

Pretty soon they came to another door. Silver put his hand on a scanner beside it.

"DNA SCAN CONFIRMED," a female robotic voice said, "SILVER THE HEDGEHOG."

The door opened up. Inside was a large, cement-structured room filled with computers, various odd looking machines, miscellaneous weapons that were either mounted on walls or on examination tables, and people. Some of them were dressed in black uniforms and equipped with military equipment while others were dressed in white lab coats. Some were stationed at the computers while others were working on the machines and weapons, either analyzing or working on them.

Sonic and Tails walked in, nearly awestruck by what they saw.

"Silver," Tails asked, "What is this place?"

" The Metropolis Resistance Base," Silver replied. "We keep track of all the activity here in Metropolis, as well as giving Eggman a hard time with sabotage and stealing of his weaponry."

"I take it your "mission" was one of the two," Sonic smirked.

"Ah, Silver," a familiar voice called.

The trio looked over to see Espio walking over to them.

"Espio," Silver replied with a salute.

"I trust you mission went well?"

"Yep," Silver grinned as he handed Espio and small box with some kind of green lens on it. "I got the Shifter Core."

"Excellent job, this should help the Resistance," Espio replied as he took it.

"No doubt," Silver replied, "Be sure to have a Messenger Agent send it to the Blue Ridge Zone's Base ASAP. According to the scientists over there, this is the last piece they need."

Espio nodded. It was at that moment that he noticed of Sonic and Tails.

"Sonic? Tails?"

"I saw their airship shot down by Eggman," Silver explained, "I searched the city for the rest of the crew. However, I only found them. I don't know where the others are. All I know is they're not in Metropolis."

"That does explain why you were running late," Espio said as he rubbed his chin.

"That and Eggman's security has gotten tighter," Silver added, "It took me longer to sneak in than I anticipated."

"I'll be sure to tell the other agents," Espio said before turning to Sonic and Tails. "Now, Sonic, care to explain where you've been?"

"After you tell us what's going on," Sonic glared, annoyed by the question, "What's up with all this?"

"Yeah," Tails followed up in a calm voice, "I mean, from where we were standing, it looked like Eggman had conquered the world."

"Not quite," Silver said, "But let's make a deal: we'll tell you our story, then you tell us yours. Fair enough?"

Sonic stiffly nodded, just as long as the attention was averted away from him for a while.

"Sure," Tails replied.

"Then you better get yourselves a cup of coffee or something because this is going to be a long story," Silver said as he walked over to a coffee machine to pour himself a cup.

"I take it you don't have chili dogs here?" Sonic asked sarcastically.

Silver grinned, "Sorry, we're a resistance, not a restaurant."

As Sonic and Tails got their refreshments and Espio went to give the Shifter Core to a Messenger Agent, Silver went over to a man in a black G.U.N. uniform with yellow strips on his sleeve.

"Nathan, Josh wanted me to tell you that his shift is over," Silver explained.

"Say no more," Nathan said, "I'll send another agent down in a minute. But first, I have to send that Shifter Core over to Blue Ridge Zone's Base."

"Espio's got that taken care of,"

"Good,"

"Oh, one more thing," Silver added. "We should inform the others that Eggman's security has gotten better. We're going to have to be extremely careful from now on."

"Will do," Nathan replied with a salute.

Silver saluted and then walked back toward the group, who were now seated around a table.

"So, where to begin?" Espio said calmly.

"Best if you start, Espio," Silver replied, "I'll jump in when my part of the story comes up."

"Very well,"

Espio took a deep breath and began to relate the events after Sonic and his friends pursued the Dark Brotherhood back into the Twilight Cage.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: The Fall of the G.U.N.**

_About a year before…_

"Charmy! Give me the stupid computer!"

Vector lunged from the couch to catch the little bee buzzing around room with the laptop. But instead, he fell clumsily onto the coffee table and broke it in half with a loud crack.

"No way!" Charmy shouted. "It's three o'clock! It's MY turn to have the computer!"

"Charmy, this is serious!" Vector grumbled as he rubbed his sore nose.

"We agree!" Charmy rebuked, "Three o'clock: I get the computer for an hour!"

"Why can't you use the computer at three o'clock in the MORNING?!"

"That's too early!" the bee sarcastically argued, "I'd fall back asleep before I've even logged on!"

Vector irritatingly grumbled something that Charmy couldn't make out. The crocodile then took a deep breath and got up from the mess.

"Listen, Charmy," he said as he brushed the splinters off his arms, "G.U.N. hired us to unravel this mystery behind the Marauders. On top of that, that paycheck they're giving us determines the outcome of our agency. Give me the computer and I'll make up to you, I promise."

Charmy raised an eyebrow. He didn't want to give up the computer so easily, but Vector was right. The agency's rent was hanging in the balance and G.U.N. was giving them the money they needed to shift it in their favor.

"Okay, fine," Charmy said as he handed Vector the laptop, "But in return you have to…"

Before Charmy could finish his sentence, Espio threw the door open and ran into the room.

"Vector, Charmy, we have to get to G.U.N. headquarters!"

"Espio, what's wrong!" Vector didn't like the sound in the chameleon's voice.

"A wormhole appeared in the sky above Metropolis about three hours ago! The Marauders are nowhere to be found!"

"Well that's good news, isn't it?" Charmy shrugged. "Means they won't cause trouble, right?"

"I'm not finished," Espio continued, "Five minutes ago, swatbots began attacking G.U.N. HQ!"

"What!" Vector shouted.

"I'll explain more on the way, right now we have to move!" Espio urged, "I tried contacting you but something interfered with the communication!"

"Well then, let's go!" Vector ordered.

All three rushed out of the agency and headed for the base. Even from where they were standing they could see smoke rising in the distance. Charmy flew up into the sky and saw a whole army of swatbots bombarding the G.U.N. base.

"Whoa," he exclaimed, "It's war zone over there!"

"Hurry!" Espio commanded.

They group quickly made their way to the base. When they reached it, the whole building was set ablaze. Swatbots were swarming everywhere, shooting down the base as well as the G.U.N.'s other defenses such as their tanks and weapons. The soldiers were doing all they could to hold off the attack, and while they were taking down swatbots, the onslaught just kept coming.

The Chaotix immediately took action and leapt into the brawl. Espio used his ninja training to take out two or three at a time, using his camoflouge ability to full advantage. Vector easily punched off the heads of two or three with just one hit. He also whipped his tail around, knocking ground swatbots off their feet. Charmy used evasive aerial maneuvers to get the sky bots to chase him, then at the last minute, either drop down or flew sharply up and let the bots crash into each other.

"Evacuate everyone from the city!" The Commander ordered to a group of agents, "Get them to the safe zones!"

The group nodded and set out to complete their task, which was a good thing, too. After all the citizens had made it to the safe zones, the swatbots, now leaving the building to burn, started moving around the city and shooting down houses, apartments, and shops. One bot took aim at Tails's workshop and it instantly went down with a laser shot.

Then the strangest thing happened. The swatbots froze for a moment and cocked their heads to the same directions, as if there was a sound that only they could here. Then almost as quickly as they came, the swatbots just left. They headed toward the Blue Ridge Mountains, leaving behind a bunch of confused soldiers and nearly panic-stricken citizens.

"We have twelve casualties, but thankfully no serious injuries," Nathan reported to the Commander when the G.U.N. regrouped and a roll call was initiated. "And everyone is accounted for, sir."

"Very good, Nathan," the Commander turned to Vector, Espio, and Charmy, "Thank you for your help, Chaotix."

"Any time, sir," Vector replied. "But what happened?"

"We were ambushed by the swatbots," the Commander explained, "We didn't have much time to prepare for a full on attack."

"Well, at least they're gone now," Charmy replied.

"Yes," Espio mumbled, "The question is: why did they leave so abruptly?"

That question was about to be answered.

A large shadow cast over the city. Everyone froze in fear and dismay as they saw an airship fleet with Eggman's trademark symbol on each of the ships coming toward Station Square.

One ship pulled up a big screen. Instantly, Robotnick came on the screen with an undeniable pleased expression.

"HOHOHOHOHOHO!"

"EGGMAN?!" The Chaotix exclaimed.

"But…I thought Sonic and the other defeated him for good!" Charmy exclaimed.

"Apparently not," Espio frowned.

"Well, G.U.N., you don't have to worry about the Marauders anymore." the Doctor gloated, But guess what, I'M BACK! And now that I have that insolent hedgehog and his cohorts out of the way, looks like this world is mine for the taking! So don't expect Sonic to show up any time soon, because he and his friends are going to be gone for a long while!"

Everyone became shocked and afraid at the doctor's statement. Sonic _gone_?! He must be bluffing, right?!

"And that base was an eyesore," Eggman continued, "Come to think of it, Station Square could use a bit of…renovation. Looks like it's demolition time!"

At that moment, about five ships fired missiles toward the city.

"Fall back! Fall back!" The Commander ordered, although everyone knew they wouldn't get away in time.

But before the missiles hit could hit a single building, they froze in some kind of energy. Suddenly, they changed trajectory and headed back toward the fleet.

"What!?"

Before Eggman could react, the missiles hit at least three airships in the wings, causing them to falter.

"The thing getting demolished is YOUR fleet!" A voice shouted in an angry tone.

Everyone turned and saw the last thing they were expecting to see.

A white hedgehog was high in the sky, surrounded in cyan energy, with a fiercely determined look on his face and a blazing anger in his golden eyes.

"Silver!" Espio exclaimed, "What's he doing here?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: A Silver Lining**

_A while before, 200 years in the future..._

A small flash of light and Silver's future changed again. What was once an open valley of green grass was now a barren wasteland with a mysterious wormhole up in a crimson-colored sky.

"Not again," the hedgehog sighed.

Ever since his first time traveling adventure, time for Silver has been unstable. One moment, the world will have a bright outlook, and then in the blink of an eye it changes to a forsaken future. As usual, Silver was always motivated to go back to the past and change what he could.

The first time traveling experience Silver had was of an adventure no one other than him and his friends remember. Even so, the memories of it were so fragmented that it seems more like a vivid dream. All Silver could remember was living in a world destroyed by fire for most of his life, trying to track down Sonic to…get him rid of him (something that he still regrets to this day), Shadow showing him the truth, Blaze's…sacrifice, and teaming up with Sonic and Shadow to defeat a time monster known as Solaris. Other than that, his memory was either blank or so foggy that he still didn't know what to think of some of the events.

As Silver flew back to the nearest city to gather any evidence on what happened, he was half surprised to find it nearly leveled to the ground. As the hedgehog surveyed the remains, he found on building that had the trademark Eggman logo.

Silver knew an Eggman once; he just seemed to come from nowhere. His full name was Eggman Nega and all Silver knew was that he wanted to destroy his world. But after trapping him in another dimension with the help of a Chaotix member, he never had to deal with him again.

Silver landed on one of the skyscrapers that was almost still intact and looked around. Since there was no library to do any research, he could only observe his surroundings and get an idea of what happened. The thing that stuck out to him was the fact that most of the land had some kind of metal structure. It wasn't just in the city, but across the plain as far as the eye could see. Silver's face hardened as he realized that this was only Eggman's doing. But because this world was all machinery, the balance was thrown severely out of place and the Empire must've collapsed, taking what was left of Earth with it.

"I wonder…if I'm the only living thing in this time," Silver shuddered as he thought of this out loud.

Upon thinking this, he immediately knew what had to be done and pulled out his most treasured possession, a glowing rectangular gem known as a Time Stone.

Silver discovered the Time Stone shortly after the battle with Solaris and all of him memories were a blank. He was helping out at a quarry dig when he stumbled on the shiny object. When he took it to a museum to have it check out, he learned that it was from a globe known as "Little Planet" that disappeared a long time ago. The planet was abundant with these kinds of stones and after it vanished, some of these stones fell to earth. While some were yet to be discovered, Silver managed to find one.

Silver wanted to keep it as a memento, and that's when he noticed strange things happening.

First, he was gradually getting small flashbacks. As they became more frequent, they began to feel like memories that were desperately trying to be remembered. Second was that the future was constantly changing on him, from bright to grim in just a flash of light. Sometimes it would revert back, but those instances were very few far in between.

The event that made him realize what was going on was when Eggman Nega appeared and said that he was going to destroy Silver's world. When the doctor stole a special camera that turns what ever it takes a picture of into a card and traveled back in time to turn Earth into one giant card. As if reacting to Silver's determination to follow and prevent this horrible future, the Time Stone flashed and the next thing the hedgehog knew he was in the past.

Slowly, he began to run into those who were at first strangers to him, but then memories of them flowed back to him until he had a roughly clear memory of his first time traveling adventure. With the final pieces of the puzzle in place, Silver began to understand that the Time Stone was behind this. It was also the thing that gave him a purpose: to protect the future at any cost by traveling through time.

Eventually, Silver became very adept with using the Time Stone. The most he could travel back in time per use of the stone was two hundred years. If he tried to succeed beyond that, he would hit some kind of invisible barrier, as if the Time Stone wouldn't allow him to go back far more than two hundred years. Not to mention, time traveling took energy so it was probably best if there was a limit. If he had to travel back further, he would do a leap-frog method where he would travel back two hundred years than a little more if he had to, which wasn't rare but not as often either.

"Well," he said, "duty calls,"

Silver held up the Time Stone and thought of the place he needed to go to. He cleared his mind and focused hard. He closed his eyes and breathed slowly and rhythmically as his concentrated on the process of time travel. In a flash of light, the Time Stone warped the hedgehog back two hundred years.

Silver opened his eyes and saw that he was in a forest. Getting a better look, he flew up above the trees and looked around. To his right there was a road running from north to south. Silver looked to the north and saw Station Square. From the city, smoke was rising above the buildings near the outskirts on the far side. The hedgehog looked beyond the city and saw small dots materializing in the clouds. He squinted to try and narrow his vision. As the dots began to take shape, he realized that it was an airship fleet with massive ships, all armed with missile launchers.

"It's started," He whispered, "looks like this is the time."

Like usual, Silver put on his game face, put the Time Stone away, and flew off at great speed toward the city.

"And that base was an eyesore," He heard Eggman say as he reached the center of the city, "Come to think of it, Station Square could use a bit of…renovation. Looks like it's demolition time!"

At that moment, about five ships fired missiles toward the city.

Silver stuck out his hand and the missiles stopped. Flipping his hand and then swinging his arm, he redirected the missiles and threw them back at the airship fleet.

"What!?"

Before Eggman could react, the missiles hit at least three airships in the wings, causing them to falter.

"The thing getting demolished is YOUR fleet!" Silver shouted.

Eggman looked up and saw the white telekinetic hedgehog floating above the city.

"You!" He shouted.

"Yes, me!" Silver cringed. "Glad to see you remember me, and I bet you know why I'm here!"

On the screen, Eggman became furious and then grabbed a radio communicator.

"EGG FLEET, FIRE ON THE SILVER HEDGEHOG! KNOCK HIM OUT OF THE SKY!"

Immediately, the missile cannons aimed for Silver and fired. Silver took a deep breath and prepared for the fight.

"Bring it on!" He scowled.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Striking Back**

With the number of missiles heading directly towards Silver exceeding over twenty, and the fact that the telekinetic hedgehog also had to protect Station Square from them as well, he would have to carefully time which missiles to redirect.

Silver quickly caught the first set of missiles and sent back at the next row. They made contact and exploded. The hedgehog flew through the black cloud like an arrow to get range and vision of the fleet. He stopped dead in his tracks when another row of missiles began to close in on him. The quickest thing he could do was put up a psychic bubble around himself. The projectiles hit his barrier and exploded. At the same time, Silver fell out of the sky due to the impact and landed flat on his back on a nearby skyscraper, leaving a small indention. He gasped for air as the impact knocked the wind out of him.

His head swam and he struggled to regain his senses. When he shook his head and opened his eyes, his blood ran cold when he saw another barrage of missiles aimed directly at him.

Silver rolled back on his shoulders and then hand-sprung himself back onto his feet. He then knife hand-slice, creating a horizontal Psychic Knife. The Knife sliced through the missiles with ease, causing them to explode. Another set of rockets headed directly at the hedgehog. Silver flew high up in the air and grabbed all of them with his telekinesis.

With one more final effort, Silver changed their trajectory and flung them back toward the fleet with an incredible force. All the projectiles made contact with at least one airship. While some just clipped the wings of a few airships, others flew directly into the hauls and caused the ships to explode.

Silver grinned as the smoke slowly cleared and saw that the fleet was severely weakened. Only a three remained intact while the others crumbled to pieces onto the open plain below. Loud crashes, clangs, and scrapping metals could be heard throughout the city, Green Hill Zone, and a little in Mystic Ruins.

On the screen, everyone could see Eggman raging at the destruction that was going on. While indeed it was threatening, there was also an element of humor in his fit.

"YOU INSOLENT HEDGEHOG!" He shouted. "IF IT'S NOT SONIC OR SHADOW RUINING MY PLANS THAN IT'S YOU!"

Silver said nothing. Instead he just glared at the screen.

"JUST YOU WAIT, SILVER! YOU CAN'T KEEP ME AT BAY FOREVER! I'LL PUT TOGETHER AN EVEN STRONGER FLEET!"

With that, Eggman and what remained of his fleet turned around and headed back toward the north. Silver wanted to follow and stop the fleet, but he knew that there were more important matters that had to be dealt with.

First, the cleanup. After taking a moment to catch his breath, Silver flew over the wreckage; picking up large amounts of airship parts at a time and quickly brought them over to the junkyard just on the north side of the city. He only needed to make three trips before the plain was completely scrap-iron free.

"All those battles against Iblis are really starting to pay off," He mumbled as he wiped some dirt from his hands.

Silver then flew back to the city. From what he could see, the base had already been destroyed. All that was left was a smoldering foundation with small patches of fire that were slowly extinguishing. Silver's frowned as he realized that he was too late to save it. All he could hope for is that no one was severely injured or worse.

He quickly flew over the destruction to where the G.U.N. soldiers and the Chaotix had gathered, near the outskirts of the city to the south.

"Espio!"

Espio turned around to see Silver land and run toward them.

"Silver," Espio respectably bowed as Silver reached them. "Nice to see you again."

"Likewise," Silver replied with a nod, "but I'm afraid we don't have time for formalities. Is everyone alright?"

"All the residence have been evacuated to the safe houses," Espio explained, "While we did suffer some casualties, no one was fatally injured."

"Well, that's a relief," Silver wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Now I need you to tell me what's happened."

"No need to be so impatient, Silver," Espio folded his arms across his chest. He knew perfectly well that whenever Silver was focused on a mission he tended to get restless, thus a little immature.

"Sorry," Silver shrugged as he caught his behavior, he really needed to work on that. "It's just that I need to know what's happened so far. I've seen the future and it isn't pretty."

"Do you want the full story or just the short version," Charmy said as he flew up to Silver.

"Full story?" Silver raised an eyebrow. What the bee mean by "full story"?

"Well," Vector sighed, "You kinda need to know one story before you can fully understand this one."

"Then I better take the full story," Silver responded. He needed to know all he could if he was going to save the future, and do it right.

For the next few minutes, Vector, Espio, and Charmy filled Silver in on the events that happened prior to now. Sonic's previous victory over Eggman, the Marauders, Angel Island teleporting over Metropolis, the Island crashing back to Earth, the wormhole, and Eggman's return.

"…And that's pretty much the scoop," Vector concluded.

"I see," Silver mumbled. "But where's Sonic now?"

"Eggman said he and his friends have disappeared," Charmy explained, "Whatever that means."

"You can bet that means bad news for us," a voice came from behind.

Everyone turned around and saw the Commander walking up to the group. The Chaotix saluted as he stopped in front of them.

"Silver the Hedgehog I presume," He said as he looked at the hedgehog.

Silver nodded. "How'd you know?"

"During that last mission involving the disappearance of chao, Shadow and Rouge informed that you were the one behind it."

Silver bit his lip at the statement and became rather nervous.

"H-Hey, I was only trying to…"

"Don't worry, Silver," Espio raised his hand slightly, "I told them everything."

"Besides, I didn't come here to arrest you for that," The Commander said.

Silver sighed with relief.

"I wanted to thank you for saving the city," The Commander saluted.

"Glad to be of service, sir," Silver saluted as well. "But what did you mean by "bad news for us"?"

"Well, let's face it," the commander dropped his shoulders. "Sonic is the only one who _can_ stop Eggman. Without him, we don't have much of a chance."

Silver scowled, as if insulted by the Commander's outlook on the situation.

"So you're telling me that we should just give up?!" He snapped, "With all do respect sir, this world is your responsibility, too! You should be fighting for it as well instead of waiting for someone to do it for you! You're a military commander, so you should act like one!"

"Silver…" Espio tried to interrupt with Charmy urgently making rapid slicing motions with his hands and Vector facepalming, but Silver ignored them.

"I came back to this time to prevent the future from becoming what it is two hundred years from now, and that's exactly what I'm going to do," The conviction in the hedgehog's voice was undeniable. "Sonic wouldn't want us to give up just because he's not around, and I'm not about to let a friend down. If nothing else, I'm at least going to make sure that when Sonic and the others come back, they have a world worth coming back to save."

The Commander paused for a moment. The two stared at each other in the eye, the Commander feeling a sharp jab in his pride and Silver unwilling to waver in his beliefs. The Chaotix watched nervously, sure that the Commander would become furious with Silver. But instead, he grinned, as if he was somewhat impressed.

"Well, if those are your principles," he said, "then I will respect them."

He pointed northwest.

"Just past Blue Ridge Zone you'll find Metropolis. That's where Eggman had his last base. So there's the best place for you to start." He said.

"Then Blue Ridge Zone is where I'm going,"

With that, Silver immediately flew off.

"Silver, wait!" Vector shouted, but the telekinetic hedgehog was already gone.

"Wow," Charmy said in amazement, "that guy just stood up to the Commander of the G.U.N. and got away with it."

"Charmy!" Espio sharply scolded.

"Chaotix," The Commander stated, "I have another mission for you."

The Chaotix immediately stopped to attention and saluted.

"Yes, sir," Vector responded.

"I need you to help me rally the forces," The Commander said as he turned his back to them and looked back at the agents, "He may be arrogant, but Silver IS right about one thing, if we're going to keep this world something worth saving, then we're going have to make a stand of our own."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Captured**

Silver flew over Green Hill Zone and continued northwest. The clouds masked his appearance from below, so from the ground he looked like an everyday stratus sweeping across the sky.

As he rode the wind, he was kicking himself in his head for his recent attitude. He acted like just a jerk toward the Commander. But still, the Commander shouldn't have thrown in the towel so quickly. If there was one thing that irritated Silver more than injustice, it was people quitting before even trying.

For the telekinetic hedgehog, giving up was like being told to stop breathing: it couldn't be done. Since Silver once grew up in a devastated future, giving up was never an option for him; or at least he never considered it to be. As long as he had the power to help others, he was going to take that chance, no matter what the risks would be.

About half an hour later, Silver reached Blue Ridge. Despite it being the middle of spring, it there were still patches of snow on the ground, especially in areas near the mountain range. However, something about the place seemed to be…off.

For one thing, the factory near the base of the mountains wasn't showing any signs of activity. No smoke was coming from the smokestacks, there wasn't any sound of working metal, and it looked like it had been broken into judging by the broken glass on the windows and the busted down doors.

The Evergreens were all cut down. However, the cuts didn't look clean like they were done with a saw, it was more like they were chopped down by a very clumsy lumberjack. They were scattered left and right and some were even toppled over onto houses.

What disturbed Silver the most was the town. It was nearly destroyed, and the G.U.N. base that had once been there was now just a pile of ashes.

Silver landed near the destruction, horrified by the sight. While the fire had extinguished, it still left behind nothing but rubble and some smoke-stained bricks.

"He struck here, too?" Was all the hedgehog could say.

Silver then looked around the town. An eerie feeling seemed to flow from the empty streets. No living soul was anywhere in sight. This was now a ghost town. The only thing Silver could hope was that the citizens saw the incoming danger and managed to flee.

Silver clenched his fists, making his knuckles crack, and gritted his teeth. Sonic leaves for just one moment and then Eggman makes his biggest move: world domination! He's gone from irritating threat to terrorizing mad scientist all due to the absence of one person everyone revered as their hero!

Did just take THAT to make people give up hope? Is everyone seriously going to just allow this to happen and not even try to fight back all because of one person?

These thought ignited a flame inside of Silver, as if Iblis was sealed in his soul and was awakened again. Eggman may be threat now, but the hedgehog was not going to let him expand his power. He wasn't going to let this mad man threaten this world. Silver's had to fight solo before, and he would do it again if he had to.

"He's not getting away with this!" Silver determinedly grumbled through his teeth.

A dark shape emerged from the mountains. The hedgehog looked up and saw another airship fleet.

"I'll admit, he's quick," Silver stated, "But that fleet is not getting past this Ridge!"

With that Silver flew up into the sky toward the fleet.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Coordinates set to Green Hill Zone," Orbot informed. "We should be arriving there in about an hour."

"Excellent," Eggman grinned. "Cubot, what's the status on the fleet so far?"

"All systems are in tip-top shape," the little yellow, cubic robot informed with an exaggerated salute. "Missiles are reloaded and tanks are full. We're ready for battle."

"Good," The doctor then turned back to other robot, "Orbot, prepare to…"

Before Eggman could finish giving the order, there was a violent smash and the ship rocked forcefully. Everyone gripped the to the nearest thing to keep their balance.

"What was that?!" Cubot jolted as he slipped off his seat and onto crashed into the floor.

"Orbot, activate the security cams!"

The red, orb robot called up the outer cameras.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Silver bolted toward the ship at full speed, grabbed and nearby ship, and hurled it hard onto the haul of the lead airship.

The big screen appeared again to show Eggman.

"NOT YOU AGAIN?!" He raged when he saw Silver scowling back at him.

"Yes, me again!" Silver threw back, "If you thought I was just going to let you walk around the world destroying anything you want then you've got another thing coming!"

Eggman gritted his teeth before ordering the missiles to fire again. The screen disappeared as the barrage targeted Silver and flew at him with full force.

"You really think that same trick will work this time!" Silver shouted as he easily caught the projectiles with his telekinesis and threw them back at the ships.

As Silver continued to deflect the attack, Eggman turned to Orbot and threw to the robot something that looked like a red flashlight.

"Get out there and knock out that little pest with the tazer gun!" He ordered.

"But…what if he grabs me with his freaky powers," Orbot cowardly answered.

"SNEAK UP ON HIM OR SOMETHING," Eggman shouted and shook his fist in the air, "I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO JUST TAKE HIM OUT!"

Orbot immediately sauntered off down the hall to one of the hovercrafts, not wanting to raise the doctor's ire any higher. Unless he wanted to become part of the pile of scraped parts, he better do what he has been ordered to do.

As soon as another set of missiles launched, Orbot hid among the projectiles as they headed toward Silver. He ducked at the last minute when Silver grabbed the first row of missiles and threw them back into the second row. The red robot used the smoke to his advantage and flew around Silver.

"Is that all you got?!" Silver shouted.

At that moment, Orbot rushed up from behind pressed the button on the tazer gun. A beam of blue, static light shot out from the funnel and hit Silver in the back.

"AUGH!"

Silver only managed to let out a small scream before his voice died in his throat. Sharp pain rushed through his body and his vision just went blank. He fell out of the sky and landed on Orbot's hovercraft as the robot swooped under him, completely unconscious.

"Got a little cocky there I see," Orbot mocked at the knocked-out Silver.

"Good job," Eggman said through the hovercraft's communicator, "Once you get back, throw him into the brig and get back to your post. Then we'll proceed to Green Hill Zone."

"Yes, boss," Orbot replied with little emotion.

The moment Orbot returned to the main ship. He dragged Silver by the scruff to the brig and literally threw him into the cell. Silver's limp body hit the metal wall with a loud band and he fell to the floor on his side.

"Not so tough now, are ya?" The robot taunted, feeling a sense of superiority over the beaten hedgehog.

"Stop harassing the hedgehog, you braggart," Eggman snapped through Orbot's wrist communicator, "You just got lucky! Now get back to the bridge!"

Orbot sighed and made his way back to the bridge. Eggman destroys his small moment of victory once again. That guy can't give him at least a shred of credit.

Once the robot got back to the bridge, he returned to his computer.

"So, are we still going with the plan?" He asked.

"Of course," Eggman stated, "Despite having less ships thanks that meddling rodent, we have enough ammunition to conquer Green Hill Zone's area. And now that Silver is out of the way, nothing will stop us!"

The airship fleet flew over Blue Ridge and onto Green Hill like a pack of hammerhead sharks, eagerly ready to attack the unprepared area.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Help from the Sister World**

On the beach of Green Hill Zone, almost directly near a flight tower, a small violet glow grew into a bright circle. Once two beings emerged out of it, the rift quickly closed. One was a lilac cat with a curiously dark purple dress of sorts, white leggings, and red high-heeled shoes. The other little light-brown raccoon in a green jumper with black biker shorts, green sandals, and tan gloves.

The cat's honey-colored eyes surveyed the area and immediately recognized the location. The numerous hills of green grass, some ruins in the sides of the mountain to their right, and little animals milling about along with some people.

"Green Hill Zone," she said, "Looks like the Sol Emeralds took us to Sonic's world again."

"Do you think we'll see Sonic and Tails again?" The little raccoon eagerly asked in her heavy Australian accent.

"I'm sure we will, Marine," that cat replied calmly.

"This is going to be rippa', Blazey-mate!" Marine cheered with excitement.

"Settle down, Marine," Blaze gently scolded, "We're not here for a vacation, the Sol Emeralds obviously sent us here for a reason. We should start by…"

Just then, a dark shadow cast over the land. Blaze and Marine looked up to see a huge airship fleet coming over the mountain range. There were about twenty ships, nineteen of them being relatively smaller than the one in the center of the armada, and all of them had the trademark Eggman logo on the side.

"Eggman," Blaze didn't even need to second-guess if it was the doctor's Sol Dimension counterpart; she knew it was the Eggman of this world.

Suddenly, the peaceful hill erupted with screams of terror as the citizens ran for safety. A few even jumped into the river and swarm toward the opposite shore. Animals scrambled to the shelter of the trees and caves in the area. Only Blaze and Marine stood their ground.

"Looks like we've got company," Marine scowled.

"Right," Blaze's hands ignited with fire and she prepared herself to strike. "Marine, follow my lead. Remember, you're still new to your powers."

Marine nodded. Water formed in her hands and she took the same position as Blaze, almost like a mimic.

Almost immediately, the ships fired two missiles each. From where they were standing, the two would have to wait until those projectiles were in range before even attempting to strike.

Once the missiles were in range, Blaze threw a fireball at one of them, Marine responded by doing the same thing with a stream of water. The missiles exploded, showering debris onto the ground.

"Marine," Blaze ordered, "I'm going to get into a closer range! Stay here and stop any missiles that get by! Just remember to be careful, I'm counting on you!"

"I can handle it, Blaze!" Marine confidently saluted.

With that, Blaze ran off and began to nimbly scale the side of the cliff to reach the air ships and their barrage of exploding projectiles.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Boss, we have another problem," Orbot casually pointed out as the he detected a problem with the two missiles. Also, the screens were flashing red and blinking "WARNING" over and over again.

Frustrated, Eggman pulled up the surveillance on his command post.

"ARGH!" He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, making a vain pop out on his baldhead. "It's Blaze and Marine! What are they doing here?! They're supposed to be in the Sol Dimension!"

"Looks like you can't shake any of those little varmints no matter what you try," Cubot pointed out in an exaggerated cowboy voice.

Eggman clenched harder at the remark.

"Just get rid of them!" He commanded.

"Yes, boss," Cubot redirected the target of the missiles to attack the Sol Dimension denizens.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A near skull-crushing headache was the first thing Silver felt as he started to come back around. He felt as if he was thrown in a pinball machine and just bashed around. He slowly sat up and shook his head.

"Ugh, what happened?"

Silver looked around his surroundings. He was in a dark metal cell with only one circular window in the back. The only source of light was the ceiling lights in the hallway at the front of the cell. The bars that barred his way were mostly vertical, but they were rather close together and had three long, thick metal bars running across to give extra stability.

Silver struggled to remember what happened at Blue Ridge and tried to figure out how he got here in the first place. The last thing he could remember was stopping the armada's missiles, and then sudden blackout. The only thing he could figure as that one of Eggman's lackeys must've ambushed him from behind.

The hedgehog looked at the metal bars, supposedly designed to keep him in, and immediately got up. He swayed for a moment as dizziness swam around in his head and made him disoriented. After a few seconds, the wave stopped and Silver slowly walked up to the bars and got down on one knee. All he did was hold up his hand and the bars began to bend, creating a hole large enough for him to crawl through.

Before rushing out, he just peeked out and saw that the hallway was filled with security cameras. He carefully studied their angles as well as their direction paths. They were pointed about at a forty-five degree angle downward and swung left and right at approximately four seconds.

When he saw his chance, Silver quickly crawled out of the hole and flew up to the ceiling. Pressing himself flat against the roof, he quickly made his way down the maze of halls, looking for an exit.

As he passed down a corridor with windows that reveled the sky on his right, a stream of fire blasted threw the wall right underneath him, leave a smoldering hole in the side of the ship.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Blaze rushed up the peak of the cliff and shot a blast of fire at the lead ship. She gracefully landed back on the top and surrounded herself in fire as missiles aimed right at her. In a ballet-like spin, she sent out balls of fire that hit the missiles directly. She then focused hard and shot and stream of flames at another ship, striking it through the center and causing it to explode.

Seeing the other ships further away, she ran down the slope to the next hill closest to them.

Marine, in the mean time, did her best to guard the seashore. Each missile that came at her, she would either hit with a wave of water, or would create something like a whip, grab a projectile with it, and throw it into the ocean.

When more missiles headed her way, she leapt back into the ocean and used the water there to her advantage. As a barrage began to close in on her, she pivoted with her left foot, spun around and created a shield of water. She grimaced, as the impact was a more than she was used to handling before, but still forced herself to not give in.

"There's no way I'm letting this drungo stop me!" She scowled. "C'mon and give my your best shot!"

As if granting her wish, more missiles headed directly toward her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Silver looked out of the hole in the side of the ship. He saw that there were two ships on the ground, shot down and ablaze, as well as missiles flying everywhere. Without a moment of hesitation, he flew out into the battle zone, grabbing as many missiles with his telekinesis as he could.

He flew up to the nearest air ship and threw two missiles at it. They hit the ship and caused it to explode and shower broken pieces down to the land below. He moved on to the next one and took it out the same way.

He was about to move on to the next one when he heard a scream from the shoreline.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Blaze heard Marine scream and immediately looked over toward the ocean. Exploding projectiles now overwhelmed her. She was just struggling to keep her water shield up.

Blaze was about to rush over to help her friend when a voice made her stop dead in her tracks.

"Hang on, kid! I'm coming!"

Blaze caught her breath and looked up at the streak of cyan raced overhead and down to Marine. Even from where she was standing, there was no mistaking that five-pointed quill-style, grey metallic fur coloring, and indigo boots with teal toes.

SILVER!

What was Silver doing here? The last time she saw him was when…

Blaze shook the horrible memory away and then focused on the task at hand. She'll talk to him later, but right now she had to stop these airships from destroy Green Hill.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Marine collapsed into the shallow water. The impact was too much for her shield to withstand. She shut her eyes and gritted her teeth as she waited for the oncoming missiles to blow her up. But instead, she heard a splash and a humming sound. She slightly opened one eye and saw a white hedgehog stopping the missiles in a strange energy standing protectively in front of her in a cyan energy. With just one swing of his hand, he sent them flying back at another row of rockets.

"You okay, kid?" He asked as he looked over his shoulder.

Marine just nodded, amazed by the person standing in front of her as well as relief from being rescued from those missiles.

As another barrage headed their way, the hedgehog glowed cyan again and created a bubble around the two of them. The missiles stopped a few inches away from the shield. Silver floated in the air for a moment as if in a meditated state, curled up into a ball for a moment, then in a massive shockwave, shot the missiles right back at the Egg Fleet at an incredible velocity.

At the same time, Blaze unleashed a massive barrage of fire spheres. With the two attacks merged together, the rest of the Battle Airships were blasted right out of the sky.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Eggman was nearly having a conniption at the scene before him. Blaze and Marine had arrived JUST as he planned to take Green Hill Zone, Silver escaped with no warning whatsoever, and now the trio took out his Egg Fleet!

"AUGH! WHY DIDN'T SONIC TAKE THOSE LITTLE MEDDELERS WITH HIM WHEN HE LEFT FOR THAT OTHER WORLD?!" He slammed his fists on the control panel.

"Calm down, boss," Orbot cautiously advised. "This is just a minor set back. You still have New Metropolis. We can use the time we have now to regroup. Besides, there are only three of them and they just got lucky this time. We'll be ready for them next time."

Eggman tensed up for a moment. Then he took a deep breath and regained his composure.

"For once, you're absolutely right," He cleared his throat. "Set coordinates back to New Metropolis. We'll regroup and strike back, next time with a stronger force."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Silver watched as the lead ship turned around and flew back to the Blue Ridge Mountains. He huffed and loosened up his shoulders. He could let Eggman go for now. Given the damage that was done to the fleet, he wasn't going to causing any more trouble, at least for now. Besides, hhere were matters that he had to tend to right now.

He then turned around to the little raccoon.

"Are you alright, kid?" He asked.

"That was AWESOME!" She gleefully shouted as she leapt up out of the water. Silver took a step back as her sudden burst of energy startled him.

"Uh…" He stammered, "I'll take that as a "yes"?"

"How'd you do that, mate?!" She asked enthusiastically. "I mean, you all like…"

She posed in an exaggerated fighting position, "WHAA! And all like…" she shifted position. "YEYAW! And all like…"

"Okay, okay," Silver raised his hands slightly, "I think I get the picture."

"Seriously, how'd you do that?!" The raccoon continued to ramble. "That was absolutely rippa', mate!"

"Whoa, slow down," Silver modestly replied. "First off, I don't think I got your name."

"My name's Marine the Raccoon." She proudly answered. "What's yours?"

"I'm Silver," the hedgehog smiled.

Marine expression's changed from really excited to extremely ecstatic in a heartbeat.

"What?" Silver stepped back a little

"Did you say your name was…"

From behind, a familiar voice finished Marine's sentence.

"Silver?! Is it really you?!"

Silver froze for a moment. That voice was TOO familiar. He whipped around and what he saw made his eyes widened and his heart leap into his throat.

Standing on the edge of the beach, as plain as day, and as real as ever, was the best friend that disappeared right before his eyes in that alternate past. She was indeed very surprised to see him, but nowhere near as shell-shocked as he was to see her.

"Blaze?!" was all he could whisper.

For a moment, there was just dead silence. All that could be heard was the waves rushing to shore and the wind gently blowing across the plain.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Team Kinetic**

Confused, Marine's eyes constantly darted back and forth between Silver and Blaze. Normally, she would interject with something crazy, but the way that they were both just staring at each other, she found the situation rather unsettling, rendering her speechless.

Marine only knew Silver based on what Blaze had told her when she returned to the Sol Dimension some time after the Sol Emeralds randomly teleported her away, which happened shortly after Sonic and Tails left for their world. The raccoon girl thought that Blaze would be happy to see him again. Instead, she was just standing there as solid as a statue, which baffled her.

Silver stared at Blaze like he had just seen a ghost. The last time he saw her was when she used the Chaos Emeralds to seal Iblis in her soul and disappeared in the attempt. Although he was unsure of what happened to her at that moment, he thought he would never see her again. However, right now she was standing right in front of him, very much real.

Eventually, Blaze dropped her gaze. This was probably the most awkward situation she had ever been in. She was sure that, for Silver, it was like seeing someone back from the dead. She struggled to find the right words to say.

"Hey, Silver," She softly said, "It's…been a while, hasn't it?"

Slowly, Silver walked toward her until they were face-to-face with each other. The hedgehog bit his lip as he words ran dry. His heart raced as he still tried to process the situation. After a few moments, he looked down at his feet, suddenly feeling ashamed.

"Blaze I…" Silver stumbled for words, "…what I mean…I just…look I, uh…"

Finally, he took a deep breath and looked his friend in the eye.

"I'm sorry," He said.

Blaze was slightly taken aback from the apology, "Sorry for what?"

"About what happened when you…you know." Silver rubbed his arm, unable to bring himself to relate the tale. "I should've been stronger and…maybe things would've been different and…"

Silver cringed and looked away, unable to hold Blaze's gaze anymore.

Blaze sighed sadly as she realized what he was talking about.

"Silver," she gently replied, "I made the choice of my own free will. It wasn't your fault. Besides, I'm fine now, really."

Silver looked at the purple cat, still unconvinced but her statement. However, he was curious as to what she meant by "fine now".

"Besides," Marine abruptly interjected from behind, "Isn't the past the past for a reason?"

Both Silver and Blaze looked at the little raccoon as if suddenly remembering that she was there.

"I may not know what's going on here completely," Marine smiled as she walked forward, "But I do know that Blaze talked about you a lot, Silver."

"Marine…" Blaze clenched as her cheeks slightly turned pink.

"And I can tell that you two missed each other," Marine continued with undeniable confidence. "So whatever happened back then is over now. We're all together now and that's all that matters. So just make up like real friends and move on."

Silver blinked several times as Marine confidently told them what to do. Blaze sighed and hung her head slightly.

"Uh, okay," the hedgehog stammered and stuck out his hand. "It…it's great to see you again, Blaze."

"Likewise, Silver," Blaze shook his hand.

"You can't just shake hands!" Marine put her hands on her hips and practically stared the two of them down. "You're supposed to hug each other! That's what friends do when they haven't seen each other in a very long time!"

"O-Oh, sorry!" Silver stuttered as the raccoon's assertiveness completely threw him off.

Quickly and briefly, Silver and Blaze hugged each other.

"That's better," Marine said smugly.

When the two pulled away, Blaze looked at Marine with a slightly annoyed expression.

"What?!" Marine wrinkled her face and shrugged.

"Now if you'll excuse me," Silver slowly walked over to the beach as cleared his throat, "but I need to sit down."

The hedgehog plopped down onto the sand and exhaled deeply. Blaze shook her head and let out a sigh.

"So, Silver," the cat calmly said, "Have you and Marine been probably introduced?"

"Yeah," Silver nodded, "Pretty much."

"And I'm very much happy to meet you, Silver mate!" Marine cheerfully said. "So you're the one with the telephone powers?!"

"I think you mean "telekinetic"." Silver corrected.

"That's it!" Marine snapped her fingers.

The next thing Silver knew, Marine rushed forward and was practically in his face, making him lean back in surprised awkwardness.

"Is it true you can lift ten large boulders with just one hand?!" She excitedly asked.

"Uh…uh…" Silver nervously stuttered as Marine continued.

"Can you really fly at the speed of light?!"

"I…uh…"

"Can you…"

"Marine!" Blaze firmly grabbed the raccoon's shoulder. "You're rambling again!"

"Oh," Marine got up and backed away. "Sorry."

"It's okay," Blaze grinned. "Just remember your manners."

Marine looked down and traced as circle in the sand with her foot.

"Now onto business," Blaze turned back to the hedgehog, "Silver, mind telling me what you're doing here?"

"Protecting future as usual," Silver said, "I saw what it is now and it's not pretty. Everything is destroyed. From what I could gather, Eggman somehow managed to establish his empire and the balance of the world was completely thrown out of whack, resulting in a world of just scrap metal and devastated lands."

"That's horrible!" Marine shouted, "We've got to stop him!"

"My thoughts exactly," Silver looked up at the little girl, "That's why I came back to this time in the first place. What makes things more complicated is that Sonic and the others have gone missing."

"What?" Blaze asked, "Are you sure?"

"You think Eggman would've been on a rampage like this without Sonic intervening at SOME point?" Silver sarcastically replied.

"Hmm, that's true," Blaze nodded.

"Then it's up to us now!" Marine confidently stepped forward. "The Sol Emeralds must've sent us here to aid Silver, right Blazey mate?"

"I was thinking the same thing, Marine," Blaze replied. "Silver, we'll help you save the future."

"Heh," Silver grinned as he stood up, "just like old times. Thanks guys."

Blaze smiled and nodded. Indeed, it was like old times. And this time around, they would do it right.

"Alright!" Marine cheered. "Now that we're a team, we've got to think of a team name!"

"Marine…" Blaze was about to scold again when Silver interjected.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea."

Marine smiled. "Ha, I like you already Silver mate."

Silver modestly smiled and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Anyway, we've got to come up with a name that let's people know who we are," Marine pensively said out loud, "Something like…Team Awesome!"

"Eh, no offense, but it sounds too generic," Silver shrugged.

"Okay then uh…" Marine thought again, "Team 'Venture!"

"Mmm," Blaze replied, "doesn't really describe us, does it? Shouldn't our team name be about something that we all have in common?"

"Alright," Marine winced, slightly annoyed by the constant rejecting of ideas, "Then how about…"

"Hold on," Silver interjected, "Marine, tell me: how were you controlling the water when Eggman was attacking?"

"Hydrokinesis of course," Marine swelled with pride. "I discovered it while Blaze and Sonic were fighting a fiend back in our world. Bought them just enough time to combine their powers and finish him off!"

"She's advanced quite quickly," Blaze acknowledged, "When I came back to the Sol Dimension after our…encounter, I found that she had been practicing ever since I left. Now the only problem is getting her to stop practicing."

"Gotta protect my world, too, Blaze," Marine modestly shrugged.

"Oh, then I guess that explains why you've also been constantly tinkering with new sea vehicles in the workshop," Blaze playfully taunted.

"Righto, mate!" Marine grinned.

Suddenly, the hedgehog snapped his fingers and his face lit up.

"That's it!" He said boldly, "how about Team Kinetic!"

"Team Kinetic?" Blaze questioned.

"Think about it," Silver explained, "You're pyrokinetic, Marine is hydrokinetic, and I'm telekinetic. We all have a kinetic power of some kind. It's a name that describes all of us and says our special talents."

"Team Kinetic?" Marine thought for a moment. Slowly, a smile streaked across her face. "It actually has a nice ring to it. I like it!"

"Yeah," Blaze said intrigued, "It does sound like a good name."

"Then it's agreed!" Marine stepped forward. "From this day on, we shall be known as Team Kinetic!"

She then raised her fist in the air with confidence.

Blaze just smiled and shook her head. "There she goes again."

Silver chuckled a little as he was quite amused by the raccoon's positive energy. In all honesty, it was rather refreshing.

"Now Team Kinetic," Marine turned around and stood in a crossed her arms, "We know the mission, so I say we go and teach that drungo a lesson! We'll show him what happens when he messes with us."

Blaze was about to respond when a voice came shouting from the hills behind them.

"Silver! There you are!"

The group looked up and saw Charmy flying toward them.

"Charmy?" Silver said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

The little bee landed on the beach and raced toward them.

"Silver, you've got to come back to Station Square," he panted. "The Commander sent me to come get you."

"Look," Silver began with a hint of embarrassment in his voice, "if this is about me telling him off then…"

"No, no, it has nothing to do with that," Charmy shook his head. Then he slightly frowned and looked rather pensive. "Well…maybe a little…but seriously," the bee flew up until he was face to face with Silver, "you've got get back right now. He wants to talk to you."

Silver thought for a moment before sighing.

"Okay, lead the way."

"Righto." Charmy saluted. He then took a notice of Blaze and Marine. "Hey, who are you guys?"

"We'll explain on the way," Blaze said, "Let's just get to Station Square quickly."

"Then c'mon," Silver commanded, "we better not waste any time."

With that, all four quickly headed for the city.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Resistance Formed**

"Blaze," Silver asked has he flew alongside her, "How did you get here?"

"The Sol Emeralds summoned me and Marine here," Blaze explained.

"No; I mean…how did you survive?" The hedgehog hesitantly replied.

Blaze looked away for a moment. Silver became concerned at her reaction. The only times she did something like this was either when she at a loss for words or when she was mad at him. He secretly hoped that it wasn't because he offended her in some way. He really didn't want to ruin their reunion by getting her upset with him.

"I'm sorry, Silver," the cat finally answered, "But…I don't want to talk about it right now. Let's just say that I managed to find a way back to my world."

"But…" Silver began.

"I know you want to know and I'm sorry I worried you," Blaze looked at him with gentle eyes, "but now's not the time. Maybe, when the time is right, I'll tell you."

Silver just nodded. Although he still wanted answers as to what happened that day, he respected his friend's answer and dropped the subject, at least for now.

About half an hour later, all four found themselves in the middle of Station Square. Although it wasn't abandoned, it was still too quiet. Usually, there would be people out walking along the sidewalks, shoppers either window-shopping or coming in and out of stores, the occasional outdoor salesman, and children chasing each other across the street. However, none of that was happening. The attack from before unnerved everyone so much that none of them dared to step out of their houses, almost making the city a ghost town.

Silver clenched his fists as he took in the scene around him. No one deserved to live in terror like this. He above anyone else understood that. When his future was plagued with fire in that alternate time, everyone lived day after day with the fear that the flames would consume them.

"Never again," Silver angrily mumbled under his breath.

"Silver?" Blaze placed a caring hand on his shoulder. She had seen that face many times before, and every time it made her worry.

Silver looked over at Blaze as the gesture broke his concentration. He saw the worry in her eyes and dismally looked away.

"Don't worry, Blaze," he said, "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" The cat gently asked.

"Yeah," Silver shrugged, "Let's just get to where we need to go."

Meanwhile, Charmy continued to lead the team down a deserted street.

"Charmy," Silver raised an eyebrow, "where are you taking us?"

"You'll see," the little bee grinned as he stopped in front of a sewer cover. With a great amount of effort, Charmy managed to lift the cover off.

"You mean we gotta go down there?" Marine screwed up her face as a rotting smell rose up out of the opening.

"Yeah," Charmy shrugged, not too keen on the idea himself, "This leads to a secret base that was used by Dr. Eggman. But after Sonic trashed it, it became abandoned. The Commander decided to use for a base of operations."

"Base of operations?" Silver questioned. "For what?"

"Just come on!" Charmy snapped as he flew down the dark opening into the sewer below.

Marine quickly followed with Blaze closely behind. As Silver went down the hole, he levitated the cover back over the opening, shutting out the daylight.

"Okay," Charmy stopped, "Now I can't see a thing!"

Blaze stuck out her hand and a small flame ignited in her hand.

"Is that better?" She asked.

Charmy's eyes nearly bugged out of his head as he stared in amazement at Blaze's ability.

"That…is…AWESOME!" He cheered.

"Uh, thank you," Blaze stepped back and nervously looked away. Very rare had anyone ever said that her powers were "awesome". The compliment was rather flattering, but at the same time, kind of awkward.

"C'mon, Team," Marine suddenly stepped forward, "We gotta keep moving! Eggman is plotting his next strike and it's up to us to stop him."

"Marine's right," Silver nodded, "Let's go."

"Not to mention," Marine plugged her nose, "it really stinks down here!"

"Right," Charmy began to fly down the tunnel, "Just follow me, everyone!"

The group began to walk down the sewer path. After about fifteen minutes, the bee raised his hand and stopped. The others halted as Charmy turned to the wall on their left. He knocked on the wall in a specific sequence. Silver looked at Blaze and Marine in confusion for a moment before a slit in the wall suddenly slide open and a pair of eyes looked out.

"Password." A deep voice said.

"Pelican," Charmy replied.

The slit closed and a small door opened up with a creak. On the other side was a man in a black G.U.N. uniform.

"I see you found Silver," he said as Charmy led the group through the door.

"Yeah," Charmy shrugged, "I'm just glad I didn't have to tie him up and drag him here."

"You know I'm standing right here," Silver folded his arms across his chest and casted an irritated glare.

"Sorry," the guard slightly nodded, "but anyway, I'm sure you know that the Commander wants to speak to you."

Silver looked away, shrugged his shoulders and nodded.

"But what about?" The hedgehog asked as he looked back at the solider.

"I don't know," the man shook his head, "I was only told to wait for Charmy to return with you. Although I think it might have something to do with Eggman's attack on Station Square."

Silver looked down and sighed, "Okay, let's just get this over with."

The guard took out a key and locked the door before leading the group down the tunnel, which was lit with dim, orange electric lanterns in even intervals all the way down that let off small, buzzing sounds.

"Um, what's your name by the way?" Silver asked the solider as they continued down the passageway.

"Josh," the man replied, "I was a once part of G.U.N. spy force."

Josh looked down at the floor and his voice dropped, "That is until Eggman destroyed the G.U.N."

"Um," Silver swallowed hard, "About that, the base at Blue Ridge was attacked and…"

"We know," Josh replied, "one of the captains there contacted us shortly after the attack on Station Square. But no worries, everyone was evacuated from the town before the assault. They only suffered minor casualties but the citizens are safe."

"Well, that's good news," Blaze commented.

"Indeed," Josh nodded.

Silver simply sighed in relief. He might not have been able to save the Ridge, but at least the people living there managed to escape.

After about five minutes, the group came upon another metal door. Josh took out his keys again and unlocked it. He then opened the door and held it as the little creatures walked in ahead of him.

The room they entered was rather large, circular, and seemed to be made of cement. A dim light shone from a couple of overhead lamps, giving off a greyish tone. A low humming sound that came from a generator nestled in a corner near the far end of the room resonated and echoed through the space.

As Team Kinetic looked around, they saw a bunch of people who seemed to be just milling about. Some wore the traditional uniforms of the G.U.N., some had on white lab coats, and others seemed to be dressed in typical street cloths.

"Charmy!" A gruff voice called out.

Everyone turned to where the voice came from and saw Vector and Espio walking toward them.

"Hey, Vector," Charmy childishly saluted, "I found Silver."

"I can see that," Vector crossed his arms and stopped, "But who are these two?" The large crocodile looked over at Blaze and Marine.

"Oh, these are my friends," Silver explained, "Blaze and Marine. They're from a different dimension, but they came to help us defeat Eggman."

"Pleased to meet you," Blaze gracefully bowed slightly.

Marine simply smiled and waved, "Yeah, what she said."

"Blaze, Marine, this is the Vector and Espio," Silver introduced the rest of the Chaotix.

Vector casually saluted while Espio respectfully bowed.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well," Espio replied.

"Now, you guys mind telling us what's going on?" Silver stepped forward. "What are all these people doing here?"

"That's something the Commander wants to talk to you about," Espio answered as he pointed to a metal door to their right, "He's waiting for you in there."

"Okay," Silver turned toward his team, "Blaze, Marine, you better stay here."

"C'mon, Silver mate," Marine pleaded, "let us go with you!"

"I think the Commander want to talk to Silver alone," Blaze placed a hand on Marine's shoulder.

"Yes," Espio nodded, "But we can fill you in on the situation. We still need your help."

"Don't worry, Marine," Silver smiled, "I won't be long."

Although disappointed, Marine nodded.

With that, Silver began to make his way across the room. When he reached the door, he hesitated for a moment. What was it the Commander wanted to speak to him about? In the back of his mind, he had a bad feeling that it has something to do with the fact he talked back at him earlier.

"Well, might as well get it over with," the hedgehog mumbled and knocked on the door.

"Come in," a voice answered.

Silver opened the door and entered the room. Like the main chamber, the enclosure was made of cement with pipelines hooked onto the walls. It was rather small and empty with the exception of a desk and chair in the center of the room, which the Commander was currently sitting at. Only a single overhead lamp lit the room.

When he heard the door open, the Commander looked up from his paper work.

"Ah, Silver," He stood up.

"You wanted to see me, sir," Silver respectfully nodded as he closed the door behind him.

"Yes," The Commander stepped around to the front of the desk, "It's about what happened this morning…"

"Listen," Silver nervously interrupted, "I'm sorry that I shot my mouth off like that. It was disrespectful and I know that. I won't make any excuse because I know it was immature and…"

"Silver," The Commander raised his hand slightly, "While I appreciate your apology, I didn't call you here to talk to you about that."

Silver exhaled in relief.

"But…what DO you want talk to me about?" He asked.

The G.U.N. leader cleared his throat, "Well, while your statement was rather brash, you did say a good point. This world is also my responsibility, thus I should take action against this crisis. And I can tell that you're going to resist Eggman, too."

Silver nodded, "That's the whole reason why I came here."

"Then you should know that G.U.N. is forming an underground resistance," The Commander stated, "And I'd would like you to help me lead it."

"What?!" Silver stepped back in shock. "B-But…I'm not a leader! I'm too naïve for one thing and…"

"Calm down, Silver," The Commander said, "I request your help because some members of G.U.N. were impressed with your display of courage back at Station Square. It's that fighting spirit that we need to help keep our organization together. We need your help, Silver. So are you going to lend it to us?"

Silver looked down at his feet for a moment, casting a glance the right, and bit his lip. He had never led a team before, let alone an organization like G.U.N. or something of that nature. Except for Blaze fighting alongside him against Iblis, he usually worked on his own. However, the memory of the fight at Blue Ridge Zone reminded him that he couldn't always predict Eggman's moves. For all Silver knew, he may do something unexpected and the hedgehog might not be able to escape it as easily as he did last time.

"I can't do this on my own," he humbly admitted before looking up, "You said you need me? Well, I need you all, too. It's going to take all of us to prevent Eggman from talking this world over. Or at the very least, keep him at bay until Sonic and the others return to help stop him for good."

"So does that mean you'll accept the position as co-leader of the Resistance?" The Commander folded his arms across his chest.

Silver nodded, "Yes. However, I'm going to need help. I have a team who is willing to help. Blaze and Marine have come from their dimension to help us. All I request is that you give them a chance to help. I believe they can help us."

"Don't worry," the Commander replied, "I'm sure we'll find a place for them to help out. And at this point, we need all the reinforcements we can gather. And thank you, Silver."

Silver respectfully saluted, "So what do we do now?"

"First, we need to have a meeting," the Commander said as he walked toward the door, "Like you said, if we're going to have a chance of succeeding, it's going to take all of us working together."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Missing Pieces**

_Back to the present…_

"During the meeting, we decided to split up into groups," Espio explained, "We set up secret bases under New Metropolis, Blue Ridge, Green Hill, Mystic Ruin, and Station Square."

"Each base has a variety members that specialize in different areas of expertise," Silver added, "Field agents who do the spy, reconnaissance, and sabotage missions, technicians who study Eggman's weapons to find out how we can combat as well as constructing weapons for us to use, and security agents who monitor Eggman's movements as well as keeping us off of his radar."

"Some he security agents are responsible for making sure that everyone receives day-to-day messages," Espio said, "and some of the field agents have the responsibility for shipping packages or equipment to the other bases depending on what which base needs and when they need it."

"Anyway," Silver leaned back in his chair, "after our positions were established, we immediately got to work on constructing the bases. Surprisingly but fortunately, Marine is pretty good in technology so we managed to get off to a good start."

"So, Silver," Sonic said after he sipped his coffee, "You're the leader of this Resistance?"

"Co-Leader of the Resistance," Silver stated, "However, Espio and I are the leaders of the field agents at this base. The Commander leads the Resistance as a whole. He's at Station Square's base due to safety reasons."

"Although he opposed to the idea," Espio shrugged, "we eventually we convinced him to stay at that base."

"What about the others?" Tails asked. "Where are they?"

"Blaze is in the Mystic Ruin base," Silver explained, "She leads the field agents along with another agent named Ruth. Vector and Charmy are in the Green Hill base. Charmy works with the security agents."

"Oh, that can't be good," Sonic sarcastically smirked.

"Believe it or not," Espio glared slightly, "Charmy has proven to be responsible. He may still have his childish moments, but he does manage to get shipments delivered on time. Meanwhile, Vector works with the field agents. He mostly works in sabotage missions."

"As for Marine," Silver added, "She works as a techie at Blue Ridge as well as a part-time field agent."

"Wow, sounds like she's come a long way," Tails said, surprised.

"She has," Silver nodded, "Not only has her hydrokinesis improved, she's also become quite the mechanic. However, her field missions are still rather small, mostly reconnaissance. But no matter what task she's given, she always does her best."

"That sounds like Marine all right," Sonic casually shrugged.

"Anyway," Espio cleared his throat, "It took us a while to construct the bases. While we did what we could to prevent Eggman from expanding his power, he did manage to establish a stronghold in each area. However, although he knows that the Resistance exists, he has yet to discover any of our locations."

"Not to mention he never suspected that we would have the sense to but a base right under his nose," Silver smirked.

"Okay, I think we get the picture," Sonic stretched, "Although I do have a question for you Silver: what were you doing when you found us?"

Silver looked down at his coffee.

"My mission was to retrieve a device that Eggman recently constructed known as the Shifter Core," the white hedgehog explained, "it would allow his robots to adapt to land, sea, and sky."

"So what your saying is that it would allow them to change into different robots depending on what kind of environment they are in," Tails concluded.

"Exactly," Silver nodded.

"However, Eggman openly broadcasted the announcement," Espio said, "We were sure that it was a trap to lure the Resistance out since he blatantly told everyone where it was and demonstrated what it could do. While we were against the idea to even investigate, Silver was persistent about the mission."

"Eventually the Commander gave me the permission to go and investigate," Silver added, "He also told the techies at Blue Ridge to be on standby if I succeeded."

"Why the Blue Ridge base?" Sonic asked.

"Because Marine and the other technicians are working on a similar idea," Espio explained, "They are trying to construct a vehicle that would allow us to travel on land, sea, and sky."

"Once I infiltrated the base," Silver continued, "I realized the Eggman had increased the security. It was indeed a trap, but the core was real. I managed to get into the air vent system and I watched as he put the core into a robot. It shifted into three different shapes, each one suited for specific for land…"

" "Land, sea, and sky," " Sonic dryly repeated, "We get it."

"Anyway," Silver glared at the blue hedgehog for a moment, "When he left, I crept out of the vent and fought the robot to get it."

Silver looked at his hand as cyan energy swirled around it and smirked, "Fortunately, my telekinesis defies machinery. The core was mine in less than a minute."

"Anyway," Sonic shrugged.

"Oh, right" Silver cleared his throat, "as I was sneaking out through the vents, I passed by his security room and saw your airship come out of the wormhole in sky. I watched until I saw it shot down. I managed to see you guys emerge from the wreckage. So when I got out, I searched the city so see if you landed somewhere in the area. Eggman no doubt discovered that I took a Shifter Core because while I was searching, his robots came out of nowhere pursued me. As I was escaping them, I found you two."

"So," Tails frowned, "the others aren't in New Metropolis?"

Silver dismally shook his head, "I searched everywhere. I'm sorry."

Tails looked at the cup in his hands.

"I just hope they're okay," He quietly mumbled.

For a moment, the group said nothing. The worry they were all feeling toward their friends was all they could think of.

"Now Sonic," Espio said, thinking it was time to break the silence, "Do you care to tell us your story now that we've told you ours?"

Sonic looked at Tails. Tails nodded and the two began to tell their story: how they found Knuckles, Angel Island moving over New Metropolis, finding out that Eggman was still alive, Eggman allying with them, their first encounter with Shade and discovering that the Marauders were the Nocturnus Echidna Clan, the fight with Ix to get Angel Island back, Shade joining their side, Angel Island falling from the sky, and the gang leaving Eggman behind as they went to the Twilight Cage.

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute," Silver forcefully interrupted, "You're telling me that you sided with Eggman, and despite all the times he tried to take over the world, you just left him behind…by himself…without even informing G.U.N. or the Chaotix?"

"Uh yeah, pretty much," Sonic nervously grinned.

SMACK!

The next thing Sonic knew, he felt a sharp sting in his right cheek as he was knocked out of his chair and slammed to the floor. Tails and Espio jumped back in alarm as Silver had lunged across the table and smacked Sonic across the face, leaving a red handprint on his cheek. Sonic winced as he looked up and saw Silver staring down at him with an angry expression.

"You idiot!" Silver shouted. "Where was your common sense?! Why would you even trust him like that?! You put the lives of many people in danger!"

Sonic glared angrily as he got to his feet.

"What was I suppose to do?!" He shouted back. "The Nocturnus would've destroyed everyone! I had to do something!"

"You could've left some of your team behind to keep Eggman in check instead of all of you rushing off like that!" Silver angrily pointed out.

"We needed everyone's help!" Sonic rebuked. "Plus you don't know what we had to do in that world!"

"Maybe not!" Silver glared. "But it was pretty stupid to trust Eggman so easily considering all the times he tried to defeat you! You never think these things out!"

"Oh and I suppose YOU do?!" Sonic mockingly retorted.

"Being from the future I HAVE to be careful!" Silver shouted. "Do have any idea how many times I've had to go around cleaning up your messes because you fail to think of the consequences!"

"Oh, yeah!" Sonic angrily scowled. "What about the time you tried to kill me, didn't YOU think of the consequences that would follow?!"

Silver's face turned to rage and he started to violently glow cyan.

"You did NOT just go there!" He threateningly growled.

Sonic nervously stepped back, realizing that he might have just hit a sore spot.

It didn't just get Sonic's attention, everyone in the base looked over to the group. Everyone nervously moved away as Silver's aura began to increase.

"Silver!" Espio rushed forward and firmly placed a hand on the angry hedgehog's shoulder.

Silver sharply looked over at the chameleon.

"Don't let your temper get the best of you!" Espio warned. "Just let it go!"

Eventually, the hedgehog took a deep breath and his telekinesis faded away.

"Sorry," he mumbled before glaring at Sonic again.

Sonic returned the glance with a glare of his own.

After seeing Silver calm down, everyone quickly turned away and began to go about their regular business, still concerned about by situation that had taken place.

"Anyway," Silver harshly looked away, "continue."

"Oh, right," Tails nervously stuttered, "well…"

The little fox finished the story by explaining how they managed to unite the various clans of the Twilight Cage, defeat Ix, and return home.

"I see," Espio rubbed his chin, "This does explain a lot. The question is what to do now."

"Well," Tails shrugged, "shouldn't we contact the other bases?"

"Good idea," Silver sharply nodded, "I'll tell Nathan to send message to each of the bases telling them that we've found you. Meanwhile, you two get some rest. If there's any news about the others I'll let you know."

"What?!" Sonic stamped his foot. "I can't rest now! We have to stop Eggman and the sooner the better!"

"We all feel the same way Sonic," Espio calmly stated, "but you won't be of use to anyone if you're exhausted. Right now, we have things under control so just take the time you have to rest."

Sonic scowled at Espio for a moment before letting out a frustrated sigh.

"Fine," the blue hedgehog gruffly answered.

As Sonic and Tails walked away, Sonic glanced over at Silver one last time with a sour glare. Silver returned it with a glare of his own before walking away.

"Who knew he could slap that hard?" Sonic mumbled resentfully as he rubbed his sore cheek.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Accused**

_An hour after the airship explosion…_

"Shade, are you alright?" Knuckles asked the peach echidna tightly holding onto him.

"Yeah," Shade nodded as she let go of the red echidna, "It's a good thing that you can glide like that. Although that updraft seemed to have come out of nowhere."

"You can say that again," Knuckles brushed some dirt off his arms.

"And," Shade respectfully bowed her head slightly, "Thanks for saving me back there."

"Uh, no problem," Knuckles slightly blushed before quickly looking away, "Um, where are we anyway?"

Both echidnas looked around their surroundings. All around them were stone structures that were covered in moss and vines.

"I think we're in Mystic Ruin," Shade said.

Knuckles nodded in agreement. There was no denying that this was Mystic Ruin: the eroded echidna statues, the ancient statures that rose up to the sky, and other relics of the ancient echidna clan that used to rule this area.

"Amazing how that explosion managed to blow us all the way here," Shade inquisitively pointed out, "It seems almost impossible, don't you think."

"I guess so," Knuckles responded, "But since it's over, I'm not really going to argue about it. I'm just glad to be back on solid ground."

"So am I," Shade agreed.

After a few moments, Knuckles looked around again, suspicious about the state of the enviroment. Something wasn't right. The area was too quiet. Aside from a few insect noises, there wasn't a sound to be heard. Shade sensed it as well and began to scan the area around them. When she spotted a stream of smoke coming up on their right, she nudged Knuckles in the shoulder and pointed.

The two echidnas carefully crept toward the hill, slowly crawled up and peeked over. On the other side was a large, metal structure. Around the perimeter was a large titanium wall with four large watchtowers on the corners and two electrical gates for entrances on the front and back walls. In the center of the barrier was a factory-like building with one large smoke stack near the far right corner and the traditional Eggman logo on the front wall.

However, its structure was a hybrid between stone and metal. To add to it's design, it looked like it was the shape of a pyramid.

"Wait!" Knuckles nearly shouted in outrage. "That's an ancient temple of MY clan!"

"What?" Shade looked at him.

"How DARE Eggman destroy a part of my lineage!" Knuckles gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. He was about to get up and rush forward when Shade grabbed his arm and forced him back down.

"Knuckles, don't!" She ordered in a hushed voice and pointed. "Look!"

All around the base were swatbots. There were at least a thousand of them that were either patrolling the outer parameter, coming in and out of the gates, or inside the watchtowers.

"We can't take them all on," the Nocturnus echidna tried to explain.

"Shade, these rust buckets ruined a relic of my ancestors!" Knuckles argued. "I can't let that go unpunished, too."

The red echidna then looked bitterly at his fist and clenched it again, "I failed to protect the Master Emerald! I failed to protect this world! I…I can't fail my clan again!"

Sensing his inner struggle, Shade gently placed a hand on Knuckles's shoulder. Feeling the calming grip, Knuckles looked up into her violet colored eyes.

"I understand," Shade softly said, "however, you managed to retrieve the Master Emerald again. Also, you stood up to Ix because you believed in your principles. I'm sure your ancestors would be proud of you for that."

Knuckles didn't say anything; he just stared at the peach echidna as he anger slowly subsided. He eventually dropped his gaze and pulled out the Master Emerald. He stared at it with a solemn expression as the words his friend spoke began to sink into his mind.

"We'll get the temple back," Shade continued, "right now, we need to find the others and figure out what happened in our absence. Everything will be alright, but we have to be patient."

Eventually, Knuckles let out a slightly defeated sigh, put the Master Emerald away and slowly stood up.

"Okay, you win," he said in a low voice, "But if we're going to do something about this, we should start now."

Shade acknowledged the statement by standing up.

With that, the two quietly walked back down the hill and away from the base. Staying on guard, they carefully made their way along a small path. Occasionally, they had to duck behind trees or bushes to avoid swatbots patrolling the area.

The whole time, Knuckles mustered up all of his self-control to prevent himself from rushing out and attacking. These bolt buckets were just walking around the area like they owned the place. Unacceptable!

"_When this is all over,"_ He determinedly thought, _"I WILL have Mystic Ruin back and I WILL restore Angel Island!"_

After about half an hour, the path eventually led the two wanderers past the swamp into the center of the ruins. All around them were a series of large, old fans that seemed to be set up in a specific pattern leading up to the cliff on their right. In the center of it appeared to be generator with cords that snaked across the ground, each connected to one of the fans. However, neither the generator nor the fans were activated. The contraption just sat in the middle of the ruin, serving no purpose at the moment.

"Was this always here?" Shade asked as they approached it.

"Not really," Knuckles replied, "but I do know it was here before the Nocturnus attacked."

The echidna saw out of the corner of his eye that Shade moved her head slightly. He looked at her and saw that she had turned away with a rather stiff expression.

"Oh," Knuckles clenched upon realizing what he said, "Shade, I'm sorry! I didn't mean you but…"

"It's okay, Knuckles," Shade sharply replied, "I know I'm of the Nocturnus."

"Well, yeah," the red echidna shrugged, "but still, you're different from them. Plus you've…"

"Shh!" Shade suddenly jolted and whipped her head to the left. "Do you hear that?"

Knuckles looked in the same direction as Shade and listened for a moment. Near the base of an echidna statue, the branches were rustling slightly. However, their motion began to move more rapidly and the rustling noise was getting louder by the second.

Something was coming!

Not even saying a world, the two echidnas bolted to their left and leapt behind some bushes. Peering through the leaves and thin branches of the shrub, they watched as two humans dressed in black G.U.N. uniforms emerged with helmets.

"Well, that was a waste of time," one of them grumbled in a deep, masculine voice.

"Oh, would you stop complaining?!" Another one snapped in a female voice, "at least we completed the mission."

"Yeah," The other on grumbled, "one of the most pointless missions we've ever been assigned. Not to mention dodging all of those swabots is getting pretty tiresome!"

As more soldiers in uniforms walked out of the tangle of vines, one voice from behind called out,

"Break it up, you two!"

Knuckles jolted up as he recognized the voice. He could hardly believe his eyes as he watched a very familiar purple cat push away the vegetation and step out.

"We finished the mission and that's what's important," she calmly said, "efforts like this is exactly what keeps Eggman at bay."

"Blaze?!" He whispered in a shocked voice. "What's she doing here?!"

"Oh, you know her?" Shade asked in a hushed voice.

"Yeah," Knuckles said as he got ready to stand up, "Don't worry, she's a friend. C'mon."

Knuckles then stood up and walked out of the bushes, much to the agents' surprise. Shade hesitated for a moment, but then followed Knuckles's action.

"Hey, it's Knuckles!" One of the agents almost shouted in surprise.

"Knuckles?" Blaze raised and eyebrow as the red echidna stopped in front of the group. "What are you doing here?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing, Blaze," Knuckles replied, "Aren't you suppose to be in the Sol Dimension?"

"Well, it's a complicated story," Blaze shrugged, "but I'm helping this world, too."

Blaze then looked past Knuckles and a peach echidna in a dark purple, full body armor suit with a headband that had a strange, bright pink mark on it walk up to the group.

"Oh, who's your friend?" The cat asked.

"This is Shade," Knuckles gestured to his friend, who respectfully nodded, "Shade, this is Blaze."

"Nice to meet you," Shade held out her hand.

"Nice to meet you, too," Blaze shook the echidna's hand.

"Wait! Shade?!" One of the male soldiers in the group shouted and pointed. "AHA! I knew it! You were with the Marauders!"

Shade nervously stepped back when she heard the man say "Marauders".

"That's right!" Another one joined in. "It was YOUR clan that tried to destroy our world!"

"W-What…No…I…!" Shade stuttered.

"Yeah!" Another one sneered. "And thanks to you, Eggman took over!"

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" Knuckles bellowed as he protectively stepped in front of Shade.

Everyone stepped back in surprised fear as Knuckles clenched his fist and stared at the squad with a severely angry expression.

"Shade had nothing to do with Eggman!" Knuckles continued to shout. "She didn't even WANT to take over this world! IX wanted to! And Shade risked her life to help us save our world from him! She stood up to her clan to help us! So don't you even DARE say she had anything to do with this!"

Everyone fell silent as Knuckles continued to stare the agents down. Shade looked at her friend with surprise and slight admiration.

"Calm down, Knuckles," Blaze stepped forward and slightly gestured with her hand, "I believe you. We'll discuss this when we get back to headquarters."

"Blaze! You can't be serious!" The soldier with the deep voice protested. "She's part of the Marauders!"

"Be that as it may, Jason," Blaze sternly turned to the man, "if she's with Knuckles, I highly doubt she's going to betray us. Besides, we need all the help we can get at this point. Now, not another word about the Marauders, understood?"

Jason sourly nodded his head and gruffly dropped his shoulders.

"Now come on," Blaze began to walk toward the rise of rocks on their left, "We've lingered here long enough."

Knuckles and Shade followed the agents up the rocks and into a small shrine. Two agents walked to the middle of the floor, grabbed onto two cracks in the floor, and yanked it up to reveal a dark opening in the floor.

"Follow us," Blaze commanded the two echidnas as she leapt down the opening.

Knuckles and Shade waited for the agents to jump down before following. Once inside, they realized they were in a tunnel made out of metal. It was wide and high enough for even the tallest human to stand up straight.

Once Shade was in, an agent behind reached up and pulled on handle of the tile's metal structure and pulled it down with a loud slam.

Blaze, being in the front of the squad, ignited a small fire in her hand and held it out like a lantern.

"This way," She ordered.

They group began to walk down the tunnel with the sound of their footsteps echoing down the passageway. The path gradually slanted downward and seemed to be in a spiral pattern as they walked through it. After about five minutes, the trail leveled out and they were soon walking in a straight passage.

All the while, Shade silently followed in the back of the line. She didn't want anyone to look at her with hateful eyes. Even if she wouldn't be able to see them, she knew she would still feel them.

She rubbed her arm as an inner turmoil started to grow in her mind. She couldn't forget that it was her clan that brought this world into danger in the first place. If she and her clan never came to this world, would everything still be all right? Would Eggman not have expanded his power like this if Sonic, Knuckles, and the others were here to stop him?

"_Was this really my fault?"_ She miserable thought, letting out a small, dreary sigh. _"Oh, what does it matter? No one trusts me anyway. I can't go back to my clan even if I wanted to. I'm nothing but a traitor to them now. And the soldiers here just see me as an enemy. I guess…I'm all alone."_

To her surprise, Shade felt something wet fall from her eyes. She lifted her hand and touched her cheek. She pulled it away and saw water streaked across her glove. Crying, as a concept, was nothing new to the echidna, but she was surprised to find herself shedding tears. She clenched as she refused to let anymore fall.

Knuckles slightly looked back. Although it was rather dark, he saw forcefully Shade wipe her eyes with her right fist.


End file.
